At this rate, between North Korea, Charlottesville and the climate crisis, it's unclear if America can survive being too much "greater", as the political cartoonists in PDiddie's latest weekly collection illustrate...

A lawsuit naming San Diego County Registrar of Voters Mikel Haas as defendant has been filed in the California Court of Appeals seeking to compel Haas --- whom we've previously described as one of the nation's worst Elections Administrators --- to follow the orders of the California Sec. of State and supply Paper Ballots to all voters who request one. Further, the suit demands that Haas actually count those ballots on Election Night, in accordance with the State order, rather than create an "unequal class of voters" by reporting only touch-screen voting results that night.

As The BRAD BLOG reported yesterday, Haas has announced that he plans to defy the SoS order to count such paper ballots as "normal ballots" by refusing to count them at all until the Thursday after the election. He has also instructed poll workers not to inform voters of their right to vote on paper if they so choose and, according to the lawsuit, has failed to ensure that an adequate supply of paper ballots will be available for voters who wish or need them.

As well, the lawsuit --- funded by the VelvetRevolution.us Election Protection Strike Force --- seeks in its third action a peremptory writ regarding the current "sleepovers" of Diebold electronic voting machines, now underway in San Diego where poll workers will have kept the pre-programmed, election-ready touch-screen systems in their homes and cars for a full three weeks prior to the November 7th election.

Carlsbad attorney Ken Simpkins's suit, filed on behalf of San Diego County voter Kathy Peterson, seeks appropriate security logs and precautions to be instituted, since Haas has failed to do so via his "sleepovers," which lack apppropriate security measures. A recent blog item at Velvet Revolution (VR) has described Haas as "apparently preferring plausible deniability of scattering the voting machines to innumerable volunteers" over actual accountability.

The "sleepovers" are also in violation of both state and federal laws and security requirements, effectively decertifying them for use before the election even begins. San Diegans should have no basis, at this time, for confidence in any results reported from San Diego's election on November 7th, due to Haas's failures.

Haas, in an article on the lawsuit in the North County Times, says that complying with the SoS order to count paper ballot votes as "normal ballots" would be impractical.

"We can't count these ballots on election night," he told the NC Times. "They will be counted during the canvas period, which allows us 28 days. We can't count two things at the same time. We'll have our hands full just uploading the results from the precincts where people will be voting on touch screens."

By refusing to count paper ballots on Election Night, "Mr. Haas risks skewing the early visibility of San Diego election results, which could impact public perceptions and lead to premature concessions by candidates," according to a statement by Ken Simpkins.

The NC Times quotes Haas as saying there is no reason for candidates to concede prematurely. "It isn't over until I certify the election, and that's usually around 28 days after an Election Day," he said. "What any candidate does within those days is their business."

Haas' claim that "it isn't over until I certify the election" is in direct contradiction to the facts on the ground, revealed by last June's U.S. House Special Election to replace disgraced Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham in San Diego. In that matter, a contest was filed after certification of the election, as per state law, but was thrown out by a San Diego judge who ruled the U.S. House, not the courts or voters of California, had jurisdiction over any election challenges or recounts once the "winner" in the race, Brian Bilbray, had been sworn in by the House just seven days after the election. At the time of the swearing-in --- a full two weeks prior to Haas's certification --- thousands of ballots remained wholly uncounted.

By law, no contest or recount could be filed until after Haas's certification. And yet, Superior Court Judge Judge Yuri Hoffman found the plaintiffs no longer had the right to challenge or recount the election results in any way.

Simpkins was one of the attorneys who filed the Busby/Bilbray lawsuit last summer along with attorney Paul Lehto. In that case --- as The BRAD BLOG originally broke on June 7th, followed with extensive special coverage thereafter --- Haas had also sent home both optical-scan and touch-screen voting systems made by Diebold on poll worker "sleepovers," despite new emergency security mitigation requirements made by both State and Federal oversight bodies after it had been discovered that Diebold voting systems contained a type of programming code making them particularly susceptible to tampering. That type of programming code, known as "interpeted code," is also in violation of both state and federal law.

During the June contest it was discovered that Haas's chain of custody security logs were virtually non-existent. The dismissal of that case is currently being appealed.

As we reported on Tuesday, the Democratic Sec. of State candidate, Debra Bowen, released a short video ad on her campaign website revealing the extraordinary dangers and, indeed, the serious national security threat presented by such "sleepovers."

A request has been made for an expedited decision from the court in the latest case due to the pending election. Hopefully decisions on these matters will be forthcoming.

Your help in fighting for accountability in such cases around the country is paramount. Please donate to the VR Strike Force effort so we can help hold the bad guys accountable and fight for clean elections! Our work is funded entirely by "we the people" so your support is crucial!

The BRAD BLOG is a co-founder of VelvetRevolution.us. We hope to announce news concerning a special VR Strike Force Radio broadcast on Election Night, in conjunction with a number of other individuals and organizations. More details on that, hopefully, very soon...

Sorry guys, Brad didn't leave enough of the url in that link to the complaint PDF for me to fix it, and I've searched the California Court of Appeal database and it's not up yet there either. Gonna have to wait for Brad to notice this problem.

As of the last election, I requested that I receive my ballot by mail from then on. Today, I did what I could to make sure my vote was properly counted. I hand delivered my completed paper ballot to the San Diego County Registrar's office.

It was pretty busy there today at about 11:30 a.m. There were many people voting, and it appeared to me they were mostly filling out paper ballots. Unfortunately, a few were using the touch screen machines that were set up.

I don't know how much difference my using the paper ballot will make, since it was an optical scan ballot that's read on a Diebold machine.

I think it's hysterical that there is "another GOP court win that allows democracy to be raped." You guys live in an absolute dream world where reality and common sense is masked by your hatred for Bush and a "party"...How many judges have found loopholes and ruled on things that should be the decision of the people (gay marriage, e.g.). From what I've heard, that's what a democracy is. The people deciding. Not judges. The funny thing about you guys is that one day, you may win. And the world will change. We will all live in this utopian one world society, where war is abolished, drugs are legalized, black and white issues have turned to gray, etc. Yes, that was sarcasm you just read. What you NEVER take into account is that man, in essence, is flawed. We are greedy, power hungry, deceptive, and we will ALWAYS look out for ourselves instead of others. The world already hates us, and will take ANY chance it gets to bring us down, and it's not because of our policies. It boils down to greed and jealousy. They want what we've got. It's been going on since man was created (oh no, now I've attacked your SACRED theory), and it will continue long after all of us have left this earth.

I saw Fitrakis & Wasserman on Democracy Now this morning. The whole thing is very discouraging. Encouraging, though is the fact that I spoke with one of my ditto-head (republican) cousins today who is possibly coming out of her hypnotic trance ... she is furious over the DRE scam because she does believe in having a fair and secure voting system. Hopefully more & more repubs will wake up & start pressing for change. She agrees with me that even the "paper trail" is not good enough. She wants PAPER BALLOTS!!

Hope you don't give yourself an aneurysm #11.

The world doesn't hate us for what we have, they hate us for stealing what rightfully belongs to them.

They hate us because we are hypocrites. We say America stands for truth, honor and justice but a reality check [lately more than ever] shows just the opposite. [Much like the oxymoron "moral majority."]

They hate us for building permanent military bases in their countries so we can flaunt our force whenever we damn well feel like it. How would you like it if the situation was reversed?

They hate us for blasting their villages indiscriminately with cluster bombs & white phosphorus killing or seriously maiming innocents many of whom are mothers, grandparents & children [lots of children --- lots of innocents.]

And what is it WE'VE GOT?

An Oligarchy.

A $9 Trillion debt so far.

Nearly $1.5 Trillion in US Treasury Securities is held by foreign countries.

The US must borrow more than $1.5 billion a day to finance its deficits. Generations of Americans will be responsible for the interest payments on those loans & the way it's spiraling out of control, under this fiscally irresponsible administration, it won't take long to paralyze the US economy.

The other thing we've got is a whole lot less social freedom than most of the rest of the free world. Thanks to the shredding of our Constitution & other rulings designed to severely limit our ability to have any checks & balances.

So, AClown, you said "We are greedy, power hungry, deceptive, and we will ALWAYS look out for ourselves instead of others." I guess by "We" you mean yourself & the radical right-wing neocons because that's not the philosophy of true Liberals.

Will Durst sums it up nicely by showing the difference between Liberals & Conservatives.

He says: "A Liberal believes by helping the greater good it will eventually come back and benefit me. A Conservative believes the opposite - by helping me, it will eventually come back and benefit me."

Only it really doesn't. That kind of egocentric & miserly attitude causes empires to crumble.

Anybody got a tip for entering the 5 characters to post? I have to do it numerous times, even though I see the characters clearly & type them in accurately each time. I understand there is no letter O only Zero. I'm pretty stumped.